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Victim of Tacony Dungeon Case Speaks Out

It was a case that shocked the region. Seven years ago, police discovered four disabled adults who were locked inside a basement in the Tacony section of Philadelphia. Now one of the victims is speaking out in an exclusive interview while the imprisoned ring leader is making new claims.

Born developmentally disabled, Breeden was forced to urinate in a bucket and then empty it herself. She wore clothes found in trash cans and did not bathe regularly. She was pistol-whipped across the head more times than she could count.

The now-36-year-old was one of several people trapped inside the Tacony basement dungeon. Four victims were rescued in 2011, found by Philadelphia police huddled together under a stained blanket, a putrid stench wafting up from the basement of a seven-floor apartment building.

Linda Ann Weston, the ringleader and mastermind, was sentenced to life in prison plus 80 years. She and her partners - Wright, Nicklaus Woodward and Jean McIntosh - were charged with stealing the identities of mentally disabled people and using their Social Security benefits for their own gains.

In September 2018, Wright was sentenced to 27 years in prison. McIntosh and Woodward were sentenced up to 40 years in prison.

Federal prosecutors said they had never seen anything like it. Assistant U.S. attorneys Richard Barrett and Faithe Taylor argued that the heinous deeds constituted hate crimes because Weston and her partners targeted people with disabilities who could not otherwise care for themselves.

The scheme was simple. Weston talked the victims into naming her their legal representative payee. She would claim Social Security benefits intended to fund their daily care, but instead used it for herself or her family, prosecutors said. In total, Weston and her co-conspirators stole upwards of $225,000 taxpayer dollars, according to prosecutors.

“If you were a man, she would be your girlfriend,” Taylor said. “If you needed a mother, she would be your mother.”

Within a few weeks of taking in her victims, Weston would soon earn between $400 and $800 per person from the federal government. The money was meant to help provide for the victims. Instead, Weston used the money her own family prosecutors said.

But Weston, speaking to NBC10 by phone from a prison in West Virginia, maintained her innocence.

“I was lied on,” she said.

Over the course of a decade, Weston moved her victims from a trailer in Texas, to an attic in Virginia before eventually landing in Northeast Philadelphia. Prosecutors counted at least a dozen victims throughout that time, including some who died in captivity. Others, like Breedon gave birth in captivity, as well.

“Some of the victims recount children they had that there is no record of,” Taylor said. “They recount other victims we could not trace.”

Breeden first met Weston near 9th and Lehigh streets. Weston asked Breeden if she would be willing to babysit. Breeden would not be paid in cash but instead with a roof over her head. Breeden agreed, she told NBC10.

“She was nice before, but then she turned on me,” Breeden said. “She kept on whooping me with bats and sticks.”

Breeden never received medical attention, she said.

“I kept on praying to Jesus … hoping to get back home,” Breeden said.

The Social Security Administration declined an interview with NBC10 but issued the following statement:

“Social Security’s comprehensive policies and procedures to determine the suitability of a representative payee serve to protect the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits of nearly 8.1 million beneficiaries who are served by almost 5.8 million representatives payees. We have made significant improvements in our Representative Payee Program.”

These improvements include implementing a nationwide policy that protects vulnerable beneficiaries from potential misuse of benefits by excluding individuals who have committed certain serious crimes from serving as representative payees. Also, new legislation enacted in 2018 strengthened oversight and beneficiary protections, proved payee selection and quality, Codified the existing ban on individuals with specific felony convictions from serving as a representative payee and required the SSA to recheck all payees for felony convictions at least once every five years.

Insert: Tamara Breeden, one of four victims found chained or trapped inside the dank basement room in Philadelphia dubbed the "basement of horrors" in 2011. Breeden spoke exclusively with NBC10 following the sentencing in October 2018 of the last of those arrested for imprisoning the four victims.
Photo credit: Insert: NBC10; background: FILE